"Mr Skrebowski said trouble is brewing in a string of key supply states. Libya is reverting to war lordism. Nigerian is drifting into a bandit state with steady loss of output. And Iraq is going back to the sort of Sunni-Shia civil war we saw in 2006-2007, he said.

The Putin-Bandar meeting was stormy, replete with warnings of a dramatic turn in Syria. Mr Putin was unmoved by the Saudi offer, though western pressure has escalated since then. Our stance on Assad will never change. We believe that the Syrian regime is the best speaker on behalf of the Syrian people, and not those liver eaters, he said, referring to footage showing a Jihadist rebel eating the heart and liver of a Syrian soldier.

Prince Bandar in turn warned that there can be no escape from the military option if Russia declines the olive branch. Events are unfolding exactly as he foretold.